Chaffer for thrashing machines and grain harvesters



Dec. 16, 1930.. J, w, HOES 5+ A 1,785,195

CHAFFER FOR THRASHING MACHINES AND GRAIN HARVESTERS Filed Feb. '7. 1928 I 0 w 1 I I I /7 INVENTORS J. 14 Hoes gym-d Oran/f Patented Dec. 16,1930

UNI ED STATES PATENT fol-"Pica JAMES W. HOES AND HOWARD CRONK, OF SIDNEY, NEBRASKA, ASSIGNORS, BY DIRECT AND MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO THE WIND-BLAST GHAFFER COMPANY, OF SIDNEY, NEBRASKA, A CORPORATION OF NEBRASKA CHAFI'ER non rHRAs INe MACHINES AND GRAIN. HARVESTERS Application filed February 7, 1928. Serial No. 252,458. 7

This invention relatesto thrashers, combines and other harvesting machines in which the kernels and chaff of grains and other kindred farm products are separated from a each other.

The invention pertains more particularly to new and useful improvements in the so called chaffer in which the separation of the straw and chaff from the grain is effected through the intermediary of a screen and an air-blast.

It is an object of the present invention to provide in a device of the above described character, novel means for subjecting the grain to the air-blasts, and for regulating the blasts according to variant conditions.

Another object is to arrange the blasts so that they offer little or no resistance to the passage of the grain kernels through the screen.

A further object is to provide in a chaffer as hereinbefore described, pockets in which the kernels are caught for their passage through the perforations of the screen and still other objects reside in details of construction and novel arrangements of parts as will be fully and clearly brought out in the course of the following description.

In the accompanying drawings in which like parts are similarly designated through out the views, 7

Figure 1, represents a side elevation of the part of a thrashing machine, including the chaffer, in which the present invention is embodied;

Figure 2, a plan view of the improved chaf fer, drawn to a larger scale, part of the screens having been broken away to better show the blast-regulating means beneath the same;

Figure 3, a further enlarged section, taken along the line 33, Figure 2, the box of the chafier having been broken off at both ends for lack of space; and

Figure 4, a transverse section along the line 4 4.-, Figure 3.

The improvements comprised in the invention relate principally to the form and arrangement of the screen-and blast-regulatingelements within the so-called shake-shoe of a thrashing or harvesting machine of conventional construction, and 1t 1s to be understood that neither the form or the mounting of the shake-shoe, nor the means for imparting a vibratory motion to the shoe, nor the general construction of the machine of which the shoe isa part, are parts of the invention other than in their combination with the elements of the invention which are novel in the art. a

The shake-shoe comprises a box 5 having parallel sides 6, an end-piece 7 and a sloping bottom 8 along which the separated grain moves to a conveyor of the machine.

Clamped between the sides by means of bolts. 9, iszthe screen-element which hereinafter will be more fully described, and rearward ofthe screen-element, is a grid 10 composed of parallel bars or rods, which in the operation of the machine, functionsto save grain kernels that passed beyond the screen.

The method of mounting the shake-shoe on the machine, which, in general, has been designated by'the reference charactergl2, and the means for vibrating the shoe are'similar to those at present in use and need no further description.

-A blower 13 onthe machine supplies air under pressure to the space 1 1 of the box beneath the screen and a fan 15 at an end of the machine,- may be employed to remove the separated chafi.

Thescreen hereinbefore referred to, consists of a series of corrugated plates 16 placed slantingly in progressive order to pro- Vide openings 17 between their adjacent ends, through which the air entering the space 14 from the'blower 13, passes into the space 18 i sections. The blades are, by means of down wardly projecting arms 23, connected with an adjusting rod 24 to permit of their simultaneous adjustment to any desired angle.

It is to be observed that the blades thus adjusted not only regulate the amount of air passing through the openings 17, but also vary the direction in which the airblasts enter the space 18 above the screenelement.

The screen-sections are at their ends supported on cleats Q5 fastened on the inside of the side-pieces of the shoe.

Having thus described our invention, its operation is as follows:

The grain enters the space 17 of the shakeshoe, above the screen from the feeder plates of the thrashing machine in the direction of the arrow A in Figure 3.

As the grain advances in the shoe, it is met by the air blasts entering the space 18 above the screen through the openings 17 and this air, augmented to a slight degree by the air entering through the perforations of the plates, lifts the straw and chaff and holds them in suspension for their discharge at the end of the shake-shoe, preferably effected by the suction of the fan 15.

The heavier grain-kernels are caught in the pockets 19 of the screen plates and pass through the perforations 20 of the plates onto the sloping bottom 8 whence they move in the direction of the arrow B onto the conveyor or other equivalent part of the machine.

It is an important feature of the invention that the blasts passing through the openings 17 between the screen-sections, minimize the force of the air currents that may find egress through the perforations 20, to such an extent, that there is practically no resistance to the downward movementof the grain-kernels falling through the perforations.

The blades which function as valves to control the passage of the air through the openings can be adjusted by means of the rod 24 to vary the force and direction of the air blasts in accordance with varying conditions and different kinds of materials, and any kernels that may have passed beyond the screens encounter an air blast directed by a blade similar to the others at the junction of the last screen plate of the series with the grid 10, and fall through the spaces between the bars of the grid onto the sloping bottom of the box.

It is to be understood that variations in details of construction and relative arrange ment of the elements of the invention may be resorted to within the scope of the hereunto appended claims.

What we claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In a chaifer, a box, a series of perfosignatures.

JAMES WV. HOES. HOIVAR-D CRONK. 

